Food of Love
by Lamanth
Summary: ONE SHOT – If music be the food of love… I'd rather have Chinese take-out and greasy chips wrapped in newspaper. [For Iluvbeyblade]


**Food of Love**

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Ming-Ming woke in the semi-dark to the smell of peppers, sesame oil and a host of spices that she couldn't name. Someone, gods bless Hilary, had ordered take out, and it had been a long time since lunch. Far too long. Rolling off of the bed the azure haired girl bounded down the stairs, not bothering to change out of the sweat pants and tank top, for fear all the food would be gone.

When she reached the massive kitchen/dinning-room/general congregation spot it was with relief that she saw Hilary and Rei were still divvying up the contents of numerous Styrofoam and cardboard containers. There was even a large portion of chips wrapped in greasy newspaper, one of which she nabbed on route much to the displeasure or Daichi who was being prevented from doing something similar by Crusher. The large blader had stopped the red head boy by the simple expedient of grabbing him be the scruff of the neck and refusing to move. It was like trying to budge a granite mountain.

"Mmm," Ming-Ming sighed, leaning against Rei to get a better look at the food. "Mongolian beef. I think I'm in love."

"My heart's occupied elsewhere love." Somehow Rei managed to sound both amused and melancholy as he continued to help Hilary spoon out the contents of cardboard cartons onto an army of mismatched dinner plates.

"And even if it weren't he's not interested in your kind." Even Hilary, who was still not Ming-Ming's biggest fan and never would be, winced slightly at the venom in Kenny's tone.

It wasn't the singers' fault that she wasn't interested in the Chief that way, he was sweet and kind and just really not her type. She had been gentle but adamant when she'd told him they could be friends, but that's all they could ever be. And it wasn't Kenny's fault that he didn't handle rejection well, it had taken a lot for him to confess his feelings to her face. It was Daichi's fault he tried to use the momentary distraction to swipe at a helping of shrimp foo-yung and Hilary hit him hard on the back of the hand with a spoon.

"Yawoo!" The redhead's howl of pain, excessively loud considering the small hurt, shattered the awkward moment that the comment had caused. Part of Hilary thought Daichi might have acted with the intend of causing a distraction, while another part thought she was giving him too much credit and he was just trying to be a sneak thief.

"But, hey look on the bight side," The neko-jinn said bringing his elbow back and tapping it comfortingly against Ming-Ming's side. "Kai's available and ready."

"But Kai… you don't have a heart," She told him sorrowfully, eyes huge and liquid while she gazed across the counter at his impassive face. "Just a wide gapping hole where it should have been."

"All the more reason to give me yours." Kai said softly in the intense smouldering voice that had won him every heart he'd ever wanted, and a great many he had no interest in, while he watched her with an intensity that match that of his voice.

This comment, delivered in the typical I'm-so-cool-ice-cubes-are-jealous tone Kai was so well known for sparked a flurry of debate from the trio on the old sofa that sat in the corner of the room. Daichi who was still rubbing his hand and muttering about psycho girls quickly joined them, though not willing to make room they simply pushed him onto the floor without so much as a pause in their conversation. Things had been a little rough to start with when GRev and the team formally know as BEGA had begun living and training together but over time things had smoothed out for the most part.

"So it's not enough that he's all cool and aloof," Max said trying his best to sound irritated even though his amusement was obvious. "He's got all these slick lines as well."

"Some people have all the luck and don't have to work for anything." Tyson's displeasure was a lot clearer and a lot more believable and had more to do with the fact that the Russian in question had wiped the floor with him in their training match earlier that day.

"Plus his boyfriend tries to set him with other people too. And not just guys, because hey why be a normal gay face paint wearing Russian popsicle with hedgehog hair, but girls too." Mystel groused, then gave a deep heartfelt sigh that caused his blonde bangs to flutter into his cerulean eyes.

"In this case," Garland, who had been leaning against the wall, eyed the grousing trio with mild disgust as he made his way over to the kitchen counter. "The girl in question is our team mate Mystel a fact which seemed to had slipped your notice."

"Yeah," The blonde nodded ruefully before the words actually sunk in at which point he turned, eyes flashing in mock outrage, to Rei. "Hey, stop pimping out your boyfriend to my team mate. Or should that be my team mate to your boyfriend? Either way, stop doing it."

"But she's such a sweet little thing." The Russian murmured and licked his lips in a manner that managed to look both seductive and sinister. For someone once credited with have the emotional range of a corpse Kai possessed a phenomenal acting ability.

"And with that I'm out of here." Garland grabbed two plates from the counter and headed off to find Brooklyn. Someone had to make sure he remembered to eat at least one meal a day and since Hilary, the only other responsible person in the place, already had her hands full dealing with the others it was left up to him.

The slightly built singer pounded her head gently against Rei's back and moaned in supposed despair and dismay, "Please tell me Kai's not flirting with me."

"All right, he's not flirting with you." Rei said with a soft smile as he reached round and patted her beatifically on the crown of her head "He's just making indirect and suggestive advances of a sexual nature."

"Hey!" The protest in stereo came from Crusher and Mystel, both of who treated Ming-Ming like a kid sister. In Crusher's case that meant overprotective, in Mystel's it meant doing whatever he thought would wined her up most. Just the average sibling relationship.

"I was talking cannibalism not romance." Kai said managing to pull of an expression of mild bafflement as if he was unsure how anyone could have possibly misinterpreted his meaning.

Hilary rolled her eyes, that was Kai's version of funny, just bordering the line between humour and sick and inappropriate. Kenny looked at the room over the top of his laptop screen, if he had liked Kai better at that moment he'd've laughed. Enjoy your home cooked Ming-Ming burgers.

"Do I feel better or worse that all he wants to do is eat my team mate?" Mystel asked cocking his head to one side. His expression was thoughtful but the mischievous gleam in his eyes said he knew just how his words were going to be interpreted.

"Dude!" Max exclaimed and made one of those weird hand gestures that indicated sever mental scaring and a need to have his brain rinsed out with bleach. "That is wrong on so many levels."

Rei patted the top of the girl's head, causing azure curls to bounce, and said, "It's all right Ming. It's just a bad dream. Once you eat your food it will all go away."

"Promise?" She asked while staring up at him, her eyes wide and trusting and the expression on her face one that tended to cause spontaneous nosebleeds in any fan boy with in range.

"Sure," Rei passed her a plate one food then lightly pushed her towards the table, something that would have been fine had the hand doing the pushing been on her back rather than her bum. "Unless you find yourself on the dessert menu that is."

"So not helping here Rei." The blonde American complained while Kai chuckled, sounding scarily like Hannibal Lector as he did, and Crusher continued to pretend to be deaf.

The time passed in relative peace, the bladers being too interested in the food in front of them to utter more than the odd suggestive comment. Though in Kai's particular case odd not only meant infrequent but also rather disturbing. A fact that left Rei sniggering into his noodles and Hilary unsure if the Russian blader wanted to take Ming-Ming to bed or dismember her in a bath tub. Or, even more unsettling, possibly both.

"Hey Hilary?" Tyson asked a few moments later, derailing the path her thoughts had taken which was no bad thing. "I don't have a heart so will you give me yours?"

"Tyson," The brunette said from across the table, not even bothering to look up from her plate even as the rest of the group giggled and snickered. "Shut up."

With little option left the navy haired male said the only thing he could, "Okay." Why did it work for Kai but not for him? Some people really did have all the luck.

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(A/N) Yeah, sorry, I got nothing. It's gone two in the morning and I am more than a little tipsy, Happy Christmas Squish.

Lamanth xx


End file.
